Taiwan Yang's Pegasus Coffee Roaster Recommendation: Semi-Direct Flame Roaster Pros and Cons - Why It's Better Than Direct Flame

FrontStreet Coffee - Taiwan Yang's Pegasus Semi-Direct Heat Roaster Introduction

In Taiwan, any discussion of coffee roasters sooner or later comes around to Yang's Pegasus machines, classic models such as the 500 g 800N, the 1 kg 801N and the 4 kg 803N. With more than 10 years of production and sales behind them, they hold at least 80% of Taiwan's roaster market. Their custom cast-iron inner drums outclass American and Japanese models, with excellent stability and sensitivity when heated by gas or natural gas, plus independent cooling fans that deliver outstanding cooling performance.

Some coffee enthusiasts have observed that the machine's structure, durability and build quality are genuinely excellent, and that its human-machine controls are better than those on some imported machines. The roasting results are stable and good, with superb controllability, and despite the lower price it does not fall behind American, German or Japanese machines.

Semi-Hot Air Roasting

This is currently the most popular and easiest roasting method to control. It compensates for the weaknesses of direct-heat roasters, improves safety and makes it easy to bring out a coffee's aroma and flavor.

Advantages:

The temperature inside the drum is easy to adjust. A semi-hot air roaster delivers relatively stable heat output, so it is not thrown off by conditions in the surrounding environment, and simply adjusting the heat level lets you control what each stage needs. After first crack, however, the approach differs from a direct-heat roaster: heat should be concentrated inside the drum, and even as the heat falls you have to guard against the temperature dropping, so that enough energy is stored up for the green beans to expand. Watch whether the temperature inside the drum falls after first crack, and if the heat is insufficient, add one or two levels.

A stable heat supply also helps the green beans expand evenly. The defining trait of semi-hot air is that stable output heats the inner and outer tissues of the bean uniformly, which keeps flavor and aroma consistent. Compared with beans roasted on a direct-heat machine, semi-hot air beans tend to come out lighter in color at the same roast level.

It is well suited to roasting blended coffee. When beans of different densities are mixed, semi-hot air machines are more stable because the heat energy they transfer is more even. That energy reaches the center of the bean, so even when green bean densities are inconsistent, the heat the roaster provides is fully absorbed.

Single-origin blends (blending after roasting): roast each bean separately, then blend. Mixed blends (blending before roasting): mix the components first, then roast them together.

Knowledge Point: There are three types of roaster - direct heat, semi-direct heat with semi-hot air, and full hot air.

In short, FrontStreet Coffee is a coffee research hall that is happy to share coffee knowledge with everyone. Our sharing is completely open, simply to help more friends fall in love with coffee. We also hold three low-discount coffee events every month, because FrontStreet Coffee wants more people to drink the best coffee at the lowest price. That has been our mission for the past 6 years.

FrontStreet Coffee Recommendation

A semi-hot air roaster with good control is exactly what you want for the medium roasts that chase balance, and FrontStreet has several beans that show the style well. The FrontStreet Brazil Queen's Farm coffee comes from Brazil, the world's largest coffee producer, and is a distinctive Yellow Bourbon. Medium roasting turns it clean and gently sweet, with aromas and sweetness of cream peanut, chocolate, toast and sugarcane, and it works as pour-over, in a moka pot or through an espresso machine.

For a sweeter medium roast, the FrontStreet Strawberry Candy Gesha Blend is a good choice. This bean is unusual in bringing together two well-known Central and South American origins, a honey-processed coffee from Costa Rica and a washed Gesha from Panama, and FrontStreet roasts it medium to make the most of both. In the cup it shows orange-blossom honey alongside a rounded sweetness, and it suits cold brew, pour-over and espresso alike.

Medium roasting also does well by Typica in both the New World and China. The FrontStreet 2013 Natural Typica is a representative Chinese specialty coffee with the classic Yunnan small-bean character; a medium roast keeps it balanced and soft, layering nuts, brown sugar, black tea and dried apricot, and it brews as pour-over, cold brew or drip machine coffee at a very reasonable price. The FrontStreet Jamaica Blue Mountain No. 1, meanwhile, is roasted medium so that its acid, bitter, sweet and mellow elements fuse into one elegant whole, with chocolate, roasted nuts, cream and caramel right from the first sip.